St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright questioned the desire of his players after their top-six ambitions ended with a 3-0 defeat to Motherwell in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
Second-half goals from Elliott Frear, David Turnbull and Richard Tait handed the Well a deserved three points after Saints midfielder Liam Craig tamely missed a penalty after 13 minutes.
With only two fixtures remaining until the split, the Saints are resigned to a second successive bottom-half finish, which left manager Wright fuming at his players.
“Maybe I was the only one in the dressing room who believed we could still make it,” he said.
“The run hasn’t been great and there’s reasons for it which I’ve told them but I think they believe too much of their own hype from earlier in the season.
“They have stopped doing the things we did on a regular basis, that’s the annoying thing for me. I won’t forget that last 20 minutes and how they failed to respond.
“The top six thing is important. It’s not the most important thing for this football club, which is to stay in the league, but I am driven.
“I have to question how driven some of the players are after that last 20 minutes, it’s not good enough but I’ll address it.
“We have to finish as high as possible but if it’s anything like that last 20 minutes then it’s going to be a long seven games.”
Frear fired the hosts ahead with a powerful strike just seven minutes after his introduction before the impressive Turnbull doubled their advantage with 10 minutes left.
Captain Tait added gloss to the scoreline in stoppage time but the turning point was Craig’s first-half penalty which was easily saved by Mark Gillespie.
Gillespie is deputising for the injured Trevor Carson and Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson was full of praise for his goalkeeper.
“It was a massive penalty save from Mark because it wasn’t a penalty as their boy kicks our lad and falls over,” Robinson said.
“I don’t think he tried to con anybody by any stretch of the imagination but I just think it wasn’t a penalty.
“Gillespie has been fantastic since he came in and made a save that changed the game. We win 3-0 but people forget that actually changed the game. It gives the crowd a lift and it was almost like a goal for us.”
